History is important

A/N: This stems from a conversation I had with a friend about the importance of Remembrance Day. About all those monuments we have IN  FRANCE that celebrate the bravery of resistance, honours the victims of the Holocaust along with the those monuments about slavery (and by extension the end of the colonial era/independence of many former colonies) along with testimonies of love, the wall of peace of UNESCO etc.. I was frustrated about how History was lost to humanity since day 1 but she convinced me to keep an optimistic point of view about it. Hence this piece :)

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History, for me, is and should always be the mirror you look at that tells you not to repeat the same mistake your elders did and continue the greatness they started. It should be as plain and as simple as that but it seems to escape even the most valiant heart and cunning mind. I think that we, as humans, aren't able to cram it into our skulls that we shouldn't let certain things happen again. After all, we had Afro-Caribbean slave trade, civilizations built with exploiting the work of the weak and vulnerable. (like the Natives). Civilizations built by exterminating or reducing greatly a nation that used to be there before (The Ainus in Japan, the Aboriginals in Australia, the Natives in America) Such a shame. Such a terrible shame. It STILL goes on today, different target, usually women and children of both genders and sexes. Same purpose, different scope, and different perpetrators It's not civilization as a whole, it's just a bunch of people who can get rich by exploiting others. Same troubles, different scale, different purpose. It's not to build a nation (not that it justified anything by the way. It didn't.). It's simply to have some people enjoy other people bodies, tears, and pain. Power and money, that's what drive people to this day.

We had World War I, « the last of the last » we thought it would be and yet WWII followed right after, and the cold war (with countries in between those two blocks suffering from the conflict) and today, warfare has changed if you didn't know, technology followed, improved and changed the face of war forever. More countries are caught in between fires and serve as tactical space to win over. Usually ? Those countries in Africa and the Middle East and eastern Europe are the ones who fall the hardest. We all know it, or do we? What have we learned over the last millennia? What have we learned and changed? In my opinion? We've barely started to acknowledge that other people actually do have feelings, different lives and are different yet so similar. We wish we were in an episode of Star Trek but we're not, we're far from it. There was progress but progress was falsely believed to have solved everything. Women finally got the right to vote in 1945 after centuries of being the target of humiliation, sometimes murdered (remember Olympe de Gouges? beheaded because she dared to write a declaration of women rights?), sometimes jailed, most of the time brutalized. People of color had to fight harder and faced death every time they tried to get free (Algeria war everyone? to say the very least), gay bashing was a thing, still is today but it's more subtle. interracial couples had and still have to suffer from some serious issues from both sides of their families due to stereotypes/prejudices, let's not even talk about how mixed-ethnicities babies have to handle just existing! it's still there, still a thing! Disabled and mentally ill people did and still have to suffer from discrimination. Even in 2016 in spite of progress being made. Guess what? Progress didn't solve everything. We hadn't solved racism, xenophobia, ableism, and sexism... we haven't solved any of these issues at all, but we're talking about it more and this is an important change and a positive one. Talking and acknowledging there is an issue is the first step towards making sure it doesn't happen again.

Let's take for example France. France is a country with a very very very rough past. I'm not going as far as talking about the Kings and Queens but just enough to enter the 20^th century. WWI and WWII. France is a beautiful country, needless to say otherwise, but it's not a « PURE », "Innocent" country or one without its sins! It has HISTORY and a very bloody one. Looking away at it isn't going to make the issues we face today vanish. France had a colonial empire, my birth country was one of them and only became free in 1960. Most of you might not know how colonies worked, but it was modern day slavery to say the very least. It came with its frustration, random assassinations, in the case of Cameroon we even had a small genocide going on. We weren't many, almost half of us were killed when we rebelled. It is documented, and I read about the use of napalm on my people. How chilling! Most of you don't know how hard France fought back against those countries who wanted freedom, Algeria was a mess, Indochine was an even bloodier mess, foreign soldiers who fought WWI and WWII were treated less than they should have been.etc.. Not talking about the past is, for me,  murdering yet again those who were murdered because they wanted freedom or were different. They deserve a voice, we must listen and digest and make sure it doesn't happen anymore. Cherry Picking isn't going to be a solution either. you have to look at the great  AND the bad to appreciate History and truly loving your country. Acknowledging gets you along I believe.

France fell during WWII, the enemy conquered the land and the terrible VICHY regime started. Regardless of what drove Petain to sign that armistice, he did so deliberately sending to their deaths millions of children and French people of Jewish origins/religion. See! It all started with a registry, it all started with antisemitism that existed WAY before WWII in France and festered like a disease. It all started with accusations, elections, and neighbors way too happy to grasp their Jewish neighbors belonging sand wealth. That is an ugly truth that can't be blinked out of existence. But we can't cherry pick either and forget the GOOD that happened TOO! All the fights to preserve the country, defend freedom, RESIST OPPRESSION (although that latter part is ironic considering colonies existed still.. I'll pass the sneering comment for the sake of explaining my point), RESIST the 3^rd Reich, resist HATE speech. This resistance is what we should look upon and what France tries to pride itself with whenever it talks about protection of human rights and peace.

Are we perfect? No, not at all. Do we have our issues today? Hell YES! We still have bigotry going on kids disavowed because they're LGBTQ+? Yes, we do have it. Women suffering harassment, discrimination, glass ceiling, the « you're only there to have kids otherwise you're not a woman » treatment? SURE they do. Especially sexual harassment, it's a thing we have that is all the rage right now. On the street, in the subway, in the bus. Everywhere. Do we still have racism? You bet we do! I still do experience it, casual racism? Pfft, bigger aggressions? Yes of course! Xenophobia and right now Islamophobia? Yes, we do. Now, more than ever we need to look at the past with wide eyes and realize that yesterday events still have consequences today. Our old fights are still valid today and still NEEDED. It doesn't end. It never really does, what can change and has changed is how we respond to it. and we've been more vocal about it, which for me is a good thing. 

In closure, I'll just give this example. Antisemitism isn't dead. Most people might think it has but it hasn't died. We still have holocaust deniers (yes we have them here!) we have neo-nazis who know they can't parade because they would be exposed to a violent reaction from people who don't forget History. Grandchildren/greatgrandchildren of victims, sometimes victims of extermination camps who are still alive today (not so many are though, bless their souls). We do have cemeteries that are desecrated with swastikas and other racist slurs, we have out conspiration nutjobs who spread their hatred and we have our resident politician who enables and spreads that rhetoric over and over again and his daughter who took over his political party and is « revamping » the thing... smoothing it up while everybody who knows History and knows how to read between lines can tell it's the same rhetoric. Same goal. We had a hate crime against a Jewish boy in 2006 by people who drank the kool-aid and believed all that hateful crap spat day and night on air or in books or on tv. We still had this issue and yet we acted as if it was solved. I don't tell you how shocked French people were when they realized that, « too bad, antisemitism isn't dead ya'll! » What did they do? They made sure to educate, talk about it, condemn it instead of sticking the head in the sand. In here, it's a felony to spread hate speech! Did it help? So far, not too many incidents are reported and hopefully, the numbers would go down. Well, we do have Islamophobia and the other casual racism towards Asians/African that is still there and is still fought against and talked about. So there is that.

 Most people don't try to give a chance to this kind of hatred to keep spreading. Regardless of their political standpoints because at the end of the day whether you're right or left or center, you're a human being who has the choice to be decent or not. History is important. History tells you that, « hey human genocide and despicable war crimes took place a lot in the 20^th century! 1939-1945, 1992, 1994 and so and so... maybe we should look into it and make sure it doesn't happen anymore otherwise why would we bother with History? »

It's not to say "we're better than you" because we clearly are not. I sincerely am a cynical and pessimistic person regarding our ability (including mine) to actually make things better and be different than our elders. But I sometimes surprise myself when I can go beyond everything to help someone else and I do get surprised by people, extraordinary people who in their ordinary selves found the strength to keep doing as much good as they could do. I have a lot of respect for people who can go out of their way to ensure others are safe and feel good. it doesn't have to be a big action. A simple act of kindness goes a long way. Comforting a stranger, giving your food to a hungry friend, protecting a scared person that was assaulted in front of you. Even just saying "it's not right" in public, call the police or the ambulance, make sure that old lady who fell can sit back and is okay is already beautiful especially if the only thing that crosses your mind is "this person needs my help". I've seen so many desensitized people that I honestly weep when some treat others like actual human beings.


know we're far from being a Star Trek episode, but in spite of being a cynic heart, I still have a tiny hope we could get there if we really work hard for it. 

We need to be better than our elders, we need to set an example for our future children. We certainly shouldn't turn a blind eye. We shouldn't turn a blind eye at other people being in trouble, especially friends, family, and strangers. 

So yes, History is important, remembering is important as well as teaching how it happened, why it happened and how not to let it happen again.